Lauren Rich Fine

Lauren is a partner at Howard & O’Brien Executive Search. From 2007 until the end of 2011, she was also a Practitioner in Residence at Kent State University’s School of Journalism & Mass Communication, during which time she briefly served as the Director of Research at ContentNext. Lauren left Merrill Lynch in April 2007 as a managing director in Equity Research. A 19-year veteran, she covered the publishing, information, for-profit education, advertising, and online industries. She was a ranked member of the Institutional Investor All-American Research Team for 14 years, holding the number one position for 11 years. Lauren has recently been named to the board of ideastream, and also serves on the boards of the Chautauqua Foundation (chair of the Investment Committee and member of the Executive Committee), the Cleveland International Film Festival, The Cleveland Museum of Art, College Now (chair of the Mentoring Committee and member of the Executive Committee), Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) (chair of the Finance Committee and member of the Executive Committee), and Urban Community School (member of the Executive Committee), a not-for-profit school for low income families in Cleveland. She has served on the boards of JumpStart, BrandMuscle, the Cleveland Jewish News (Executive Committee), Dolan Media, iGuiders, In Counsel With Women, and Laurel School; the Advisory Boards of Creative Loafing, Dix & Eaton, MedCity News, and the Poynter Institute; the Leadership Board of the Lerner Research Institute; and on committees at Citizens Academy, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Racquet Club, The Gathering Place, and Hawken School. Lauren was a member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2007. She was a recipient of the YWCA Women of Achievement Award in 2013. Lauren has an MBA from the Stern School of Management (NYU) and a BA in psychology / economics from Tufts University.